Lighting systems for buildings typically are wired in the field by electricians. The electrician typically will run a shielded multi-conductor cable, such as BX cable, from a central panel through conduits that may be mounted in suspended ceilings or walls of a building. The cables that extend from the central panel typically will lead to distribution boxes, from which the electrician will extend a plurality of separate cables to lighting units, switches or the like. The electrician working in the field will strip insulation from the various cable wires and manually complete the electrical connections at the central panel, the distribution boxes and the junction boxes. Although this standard prior art process is effective, it is extremely labor intensive.
Considerable manufacturing efficiencies have been achieved with respect to the stripping of insulation from wires, crimping terminals onto the wires and mounting terminated leads into electrical connector housings. In particular, the prior art includes many variations of apparatus and processes for making electrical harnesses for signal lines having a plurality of insulated conductors terminated at each respective end, with the terminals thereof mounted in associated housings. The available harness assembling equipment, however, generally is operative to repeatedly perform a plurality of substantially identical operations, with each terminal, each wire and each harness being identical.
Some known harness assembling equipment includes means for adjusting the crimp height to enable the harness assembling equipment to be changed over from making harnesses of a first dimension and/or type to making harnesses of a second dimension or type. Examples of this prior art include U.S. Pat. No. 4,587,725 which issued to Ogawa et al. on May 13, 1986; U.S. Pat. No. 4,790,173 which issued to Boutcher, Jr. on Dec. 13, 1988; U.S. Pat. No. 4,707,913 which issued to Moline on Nov. 24, 1987; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,400,873 which issued to Kindig et al. on Aug. 30, 1983. Each of these references shows apparatus for selectively adjusting the stroke of the crimp press. Another prior art terminating press is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,576,032 which issued to Maack et al. on Mar. 18, 1986 and which shows a crimp press having deflectable members to account for certain ranges of variations in the dimensions of a crimped terminal.
The prior art includes power wire harness assemblies that are intended to eliminate a substantial portion of the on-site wiring that typically is completed by electricians in the field. In particular, extremely effective power wire harness assemblies have been provided by Lithonia-Reloc of Conyers, Georgia. These assemblies include a shielded cable, such as BX cable, having a plurality of insulated conductors therein and having suitable electrical connectors securely mounted at opposed ends. The Reloc power wire harness assemblies can be extended from one junction box to another, from one cable to another or from a cable or junction box to a lighting fixture. Many power wire harnesses sold by Reloc include drop wires which extend from one of the two cable connectors of the power wire harness. The drop wire, with an associated connector mounted thereto, may be adapted to extend into a knockout on a lighting fixture.
The typical power wire harness assembly manufactured by Lithonia-Reloc will include drop wires extending from the cable connector only at one end of the cable. The cable connector having drop wires extending therefrom will be mated to a cable connector on another harness assembly that has no drop wires. Thus, a daisy chain of power wire harness assemblies may be created, with drop wires extending from one cable connector in each harness assembly, and from one cable connector in each mated pair of cable connectors.
The above described Reloc power wire harness assemblies substantially decrease the amount of on-site labor required by electricians. However, these prior art assemblies have not been well suited for the above referenced prior art automated harness assembling equipment. In particular, the terminations in each power wire harness assembly will vary significantly from one terminal to the next. For example, some terminations will require grounding clips, while others will not. Some terminals will include drop wires, while others will not. The drop wires may be 12 gauge solid wire, 18 gauge solid wire or 18 gauge stranded wire, with the particular selection of drop wires varying from one harness to the next. In most instances, the terminations at one end of the harness assembly will be significantly different from the terminations at the opposed end. In addition to the differences between the terminations on any single harness assembly, it is necessary to produce many different types of harness assemblies in accordance with the voltage and phasing requirements of the building's electrical system. For example, the gauge and number of conductors in the power cable may vary significantly from one harness assembly to the next. More particularly, the power cables are likely to include anywhere between three and five conductors per cable, with each conductor being either 12 or 18 gauge and being either solid or stranded. The length of the respective cables also will vary significantly from one harness assembly to the next. In view of these variables, the production of power wire harness assemblies has not been automated, and has merely moved the labor intensive assembling work from a largely uncontrolled field location to a more closely controlled factory location.
Attempts to improve the efficiency of the above described power wire harness assembling process is also rendered difficult by the high degree of quality control required for power wiring in buildings. Quality control often can be assured by visually inspecting the harnesses at various stages of their manual assembly. Automated harness assembling devices, however, make visual inspection during the manufacturing process more difficult. In many instances, the terminations produced by the prior art apparatus are substantially hidden from view when the completed harness is ejected from the prior art apparatus.
In view of the above, it is an object of the subject invention to provide an apparatus for more efficiently producing power wire harness assemblies.
It is a further object of the subject invention to provide a power wire harness assembling apparatus that can readily adjust to different termination requirements from one conductor to the next and from one harness assembly to the next.
A further object of the subject invention is to provide an apparatus and process for efficiently completing a power wire harness wherein selected terminals of the assembly have drop wires simultaneously terminated with selected cable wires.
Still another object of the subject invention is to provide a power wire harness assembling apparatus and process which substantially simultaneously checks the presence of terminals and guides the terminals into a housing.
An additional object of the subject invention is to provide a cable fixturing apparatus which places cable wires at a first pitch during trimming, stripping and terminating operations, but which establishes a second pitch for insertion into a housing.